Vaporizing and mixing unit



p 5, 1956 A. F. SEIBEL VAPORIZING AND MIXING UNIT Filed Nov 25, 1955 3Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. I fi/frea I? JeIbe/ Sept. 25, 1956 A. F. SEIBELVAPORIZING AND MIXING UNIT C5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov. 25

Sept. 25, 1956 A. F. SEIBEL VAPORIZING AND MIXING UNIT 3 Sheets-Sheet 5Filed Nov 25, 1955 INVENTOR. A/freo E Se/be/ avid/3m ATTORNEY r I2,764,455 Patented Sept. 25, 195

VAPORIZING AND MIXING UNIT Alfred F. Seihel, Toledo, Ohio ApplicationNovember 23, 1953, Serial No. 393,633

7 Claims. (Cl. 299-140) This invention relates to a fuel and gaseousmixing unit in which a liquid fuel such as oil, for example, is mixedwith one or more gaseous fluids such as compressed air, steam or othergases and comprises such arrangement of passages therefor together withspecially constructed mixing, vaporizing, expansion and turbulizingchambers and compression means as to produce a highly satisfactorycombustible mixture for use in a furnace, for example, With a greatlyreduced requirement of fuel supply, thereby making a very eflicient unitof the type indicated.

Further objects and advantages are within the scope of this inventionsuch as relate to the arrangement, operation and function of the relatedelements of the structure, to various details of construction and tocombinations of parts, elements per se, and to economies of manufactureand numerous other features as will be apparent from a consideration ofthe specification and drawing of a form of the invention, which may bepreferred, in which:

Figure I is a sectional elevation through a burner illustrating oneembodiment of my invention;

Figure II is a section taken on the line IIII of Figure I;

Figure III is a section taken on the line IIIIII of Figure I;

Figure IV is an enlarged sectional elevation of the atomizing portion ofthe burner illustrated in Figure I;

Figure V is a section taken on the line V--V of Figure IV;

Figure V1 is a sectional elevation through a burner illustrating analternate form of my invention;

Figure VII is a section taken on the line VII-VII of Figure VI;

Figure VIII is a section taken on the line VIIIVIII of Figure VI;

Figure IX is a section taken on the line I'X-I'X of Figure VI;

Figure X is a longitudinal sectional elevation of a still furthermodification; and

Figure XI is a cross section thereof taken on line XI-XI of Figure X.

In the drawings and particularly in Figure I, I have illustrated myinvention in the specific embodiment shown as including a burner unitdesignated generally as 10 located in a suitable housing and adapted tobe mounted for use with a furnace, particularly of the industrial type,not shown.

The burner unit itself forming the essential basis of the invention inthe embodiment illustrated, comprises a vaporizing member in, the oil orother liquid fuel supply to which is admitted under pressure to acentral cylindrical passage ll from a supply line 12. The discharge endof the passage 11 is reduced in diameter to form a passage 1.3 andterminates in a still further restricted outlet 14 adapted to dischargea line stream of liquid fuel. to be united with air, steam or other gasin a mixing or first stage treatment chamber 15. r

Air or other suitable gas, steam, or the like, under pressure, forexample, to pounds per square inch, is admitted from a source 16 throughan annular chamber 17 surrounding'the wall 18 of the passage 11 anddischarges into chamber 15. The annular passage 17 is closed as at 19'except for a plurality of ports 20 inclined at a suitable angle,preferably substantially at such an exact angle as to converge in' theline of the axis of the passage 11 or into the center of the stream ofliquid fuel issuing from the outlet 14. The arrangement and inclinationof these ports 20 is such that the impingement of the air on the fuelstream takes place slightly forward of the center of the mixing chamber15, the oil and gas extremely divided up, vaporized and' interunited aswill hereinafter appear. Moreover, it will be noted from the drawingthat I prefer to use three ducts spaced 120 degrees circumferentiallyaround the axis of the unit since I have found that by using an oddnumber of ducts, as shown, the meeting of the stream of compressedgaseous fluid centrally of the axis of the unit has a very desirableeffect in furthering the mixture, since there is no tendency of thecontact of one of the streams to counterbalance the other but the gasesand fuel are the more intimately mixed when an odd number of compressedgaseous fluid ducts are employed. The chamber 15' has an outwardlyflared wall It and the proportions of the mechanism herein illustrated'Ihave found to be very satisfactory in operation.

As forming means for providing a second stage of fuel expansion,turbulizing and intimately mixing means, I provide a relatively longcylindrical chamber 25 aligned with the chambers 11 and 17, said chamber25 being united at'its outer endiwith a conically-shaped third stage orcompressing chamber 27, formed as shown by providing the conical-shapedend Wall 28.

It will be noted that the special outlet in the Wall 28 of thecompression chamber 27 is formed with a land indicated at 29, the outletnozzle thus arranged to suitably form a relatively long narrow stream ofvaporized fuel for the combustible mixture.

In the embodiment shown in Figure I, I have shown a suitable housing 30surrounding the entire burner unit 10' and adapted to conduct combustionor blower air under low pressure from a source 31 toan area 32surrounding the vaporized fuel stream issuing from the unit 10 to formthe combustible mixture for passage into a furnace.

This housing 30 is provided, as shown, with a cylindrical outlet section30, the length thereof from the extreme outlet Wall being varied asdesired. Making this section 30' longer cooperates with the issuingstream of combustible mixture to confine the flame into a relativelylong narrow stream, whereas, making this cylindrical section 30- shorterpermits this stream to widen out more.

As will be seen from examination of Figure IV, the air jets from thepassage 20 strike the stream of oil forming an extremely intimatemixture at the same time that expansion of the combined charge is takingplace in its first stage. This rapidly moving mixture is restricted inmovement by the cylindrical wall 22 of the mixing chamber 15', therelatively high pressures for the gases and the manner of engagementthereof with the fuel stream effecting, it is-believed', a violentintermixing and interuniting or such change of the atomic pattern of theelements to turbulence chamber and the compression chamber 27, no hard,fast plane of division occurs. The tapered and reduced shape of thechamber 27 is proportioned as shown, since I have found with this burnerunit constructed to the proportions or dimensions illustrated has formeda very efficient burner effecting a saving of a large per cent of fuel,even starting with heavy fuels. It is extremely desirable to cause themixed fuel to emerge from the burner into the stream of combustible airin a long narrow formation from the burner unit and this land 29 whichfor this embodiment should not be more than A or less than inch inlength, causes the necessary limited divergence of the issuing fuelstream, along lines approximately indicated as X and Y on Figure I.

In the embodiment shown in Figures VI to IX, I have illustrated afurther embodiment of my invention. Here, two gases are mixed with thefuel before it emerges from the burner. The burner unit indicatedgenerally at has a central fuel admitting chamber 41 receiving liquidfuel from a source 42. Surrounding the chamber 41 is a wall 43 andexternal to this is an annular chamber 44 adapted to receive air orother gas under pressure from a source 45. A plurality of inclinedpassages 46 conduct the pressure air to impingement on the fuel streamissuing from the orifice 47 into the first stage expansion and mixingchamber 43. The action of this mixing and expansion is to this pointexactly the same as has been described in connection with burner 10(Figure I).

A cylindrical chamber 49 is mounted adjacent chamber 48, the wall 50 ofwhich is provided with a plurality of ports 51 inclined toward thecenter of the chamber 49 and adapted to receive air or other gas from asource 52 through an annular chamber surrounding the wall 54 of thechamber 44. The chamber 49 now acts as a second stage expansion andmixing chamber for the atomized air and fuel, plus the second gasentering through the ports 51 and is compressed in the area 55 andejected from the orifice 56 in the same manner as previously describedfor burner 10.

In Figure X, I have illustrated a still further embodiment of myinvention in which I use the central unit 10 substantially identicalwith that illustrated in Figure I, together with the outer housing 30.These parts are substantially identical in dimensions and proportions asillustrated in connection with the invention shown in Figure I. However,in Figure X, I provide means for supplying a second gaseous fluidemerging at the outlet end of the unit 10 rather than entering thesecond expansion chamber illustrated in Figure VI, where two gases arethere mixed with the liquid fuel. In Figure X, as shown, I surround theunit 10 with an annular enlarged tube 58 having a base portion 59provided with a screw-threaded extension 60 adapted to be screw-threadedinto a threaded end wall portion 61 which carries centrally thereof theunit 10. As indicated at 62, the outer wall 58 of the innermost sectionof the annular tube 58 converges at a plane adjacent the forward portionof the first expansion chamber 15. As shown, in Figure X, thisconverging section 62 merges into a tubular portion 63 surrounding andspaced from the second expansion chamber 25. This section 63 is ofsmaller diameter than the portion 58 and preferably integral therewithand extends to adjacent the outer end of the unit 10 as shown. The outerend of section 63 terminates in an inclined face 64 merging with theouter surface of the compression chamber 27 of the unit 10 shown inFigure I. As more clearly shown in Figure XI, the outer end portion ofthe tube section 63 is provided through the face 64 with a series ofopenings 65. I illustrate six such longitudinally arranged passages 65which direct the stream of the second gas substantially parallel to theaxis of the unit 10 as indicated at 66 in Figure X.

It is apparent that, within the scope of the invention, modificationsand different arrangements may be made other than is herein disclosed,and the present disclosure is 2,764,455 a g A illustrative merely, theinvention comprehending all variations thereof.

What I claim is:

1. In a fuel and gaseous fluid vaporizer unit for a furnace, a centralpassage having a fuel inlet at one end and an outlet at the other end;an annular gaseous fluid passage surrounding said central passage havingmeans to admit a gaseous fluid thereto at the end thereof adjacent theinlet of said central passage; a relatively short longitudinallyextended mixing and expanding chamber fixed to the outlet end of saidcentral passage and forming a closure for said surrounding passage, saidchamber being provided with a plurality of annularly arranged diagonalgaseous fluid ducts from said surrounding passage into said mixingchamber, said diagonal ducts arranged to converge in a plane forwardlyof the central portion of said mixing chamber; and a relatively longenlarged extension fixed to the outer end of said mixing chamber, saidextension forming an expansion section for extremely finely atomizingand turbulizing the mixture; a restricted wall at the outer end of saidexpansion chamber forming a compression chamber at the emerging end ofsaid extension, said compression chamber having an outlet for thecombustible mixture.

2. In an oil and air vaporizer unit for a furnace, a central tube havingan oil inlet at one end and a restricted outlet at the other end; anannular compressed air tube surrounding said central tube having meansto admit compressed air thereto at the end adjacent said 011 inlet ofsaid central tube; a relatively short longitudinally extended mixing andexpanding chamber fixed to the outlet end of said central tube intowhich said oil outlet opens; a plurality of annularly arranged diagonalair ducts from said compressed air passage into said mixing chamber withsaid oil outlet, and said diagonal air ducts arranged to converge in aplane adjacent the central portion of said chamber, a relatively longtubular extension fixed to the outer end of said mixing chamber, saidextension forming an extremely finely atomizing and turbulizing section;a restricted outlet forming a compression chamber at the emerging end ofsaid extension; and means to deliver a combustible mixture from saidunit in a narrow long stream.

3. In a fuel and gaseous fluid vaporizer unit, a central passage havinga fuel inlet at one end and a restricted passage at the outlet endthereof; an annular gaseous fluid passage surrounding said centralpassage having means to admit gaseous fluid thereto at the end thereofadjacent the inlet of said central passage; a relatively shortlongitudinally extending mixing and expanding chamber fixed to theoutlet end of said central passage and having an end wall forming aclosure for said surrounding passage, said chamber being provided with aplurality of annularly arranged diagonal gaseous fluid inlet ducts fromsaid surrounding passage extending through said end wall into saidmixing chamber, the outlet surfaces of said ducts arranged in the planeof the outlet surface of said restricted fuel outlet, said diagonalducts arranged to converge in a plane forwardly of the central portionof said mixing chamber and a relatively long enlarged extension fixed tothe outer end of said mixing chamber, said extension forming anexpansion section for extremely finely atomizing and turbulizing themixture; a restricted wall at the outer end of said expansion chamberforming a compression chamber at the emerging end of said extension,said compression chamber having an outlet for the combustible mixture.

4-. In a fuel and gaseous fluid vaporizer unit, a central passage havinga fuel inlet at one end and a restricted passage at the outlet endthereof; an annular gaseous fluid passage surrounding said centralpassage having means to admit gaseous fluid thereto at the end thereofadjacent the inlet of said central passage; a relatively shortlongitudinally extending mixing and expanding chamber fixed to theoutlet end of said central passage and having an end wall forming aclosure for said surrounding passage, said chamber being provided with aplurality of annularly arranged diagonal gaseous fluid inlet ducts fromsaid surrounding passage extending through said end wall intosaid mixingchamber, the outlet surfaces of said ducts arranged in the plane of theoutlet surface of said restricted fuel outlet, said diagonal ductsarranged to converge centrally in the stream of fuel issuing from saidcentral restricted outlet end in a plane located forwardly of thecentral portion of said mixing chamber; and a relatively long enlargedhollow extension fixed to the outer end of said mixing chamber; anexpanded opening outlet from said mixing chamber to said extensionchamber, said extension chamber forming an expansion section forextremely finely atomizing and turbulizing the mixture, and acompression chamber connected with said extension chamber, saidcompression chamber being provided with an outlet for the combustiblemixture.

5. In a fuel and gaseous fluid vaporizer unit for a furnace, a centralpassage having a fuel inlet at one end and an outlet at the other end;an annular gaseous fluid passage surrounding said central passage havingmeans to admit a gaseous fluid thereto at the end thereof adjacent t-heinlet of said central passage; a relatively short longitudinallyextended mixing and expanding chamber fixed to the outlet end of saidcentral passage and forming a closure for said surrounding passage, saidchamber being provided with a plurality of annularly arranged diagonalgaseous fluid ducts from said surrounding passage into said mixingchamber, said diagonal ducts arranged to converge in a plane forwardlyof the central portion of said mixing chamber; and a relatively longenlarged extension fixed to the outer end of said mixing chamber;another annular passage surrounding said firstmentioned annular gaseousfluid passage connected at one end with an inlet and provided at itsother end with diagonally arranged ducts for connecting said secondannular passage with the inlet end of said extension cham ber, saidextension chamber forming an expansion section for extremely finelyatomizing and turbulizing the mixture; a restricted wall at the outerend of said expansion chamber forming a compression chamber at theemerging end of said extension, said compression cham ber having anoutlet for the combustible mixture.

6. In a fuel and gaseous fluid vaporizer unit for a furnace, a centralpassage having a fuel inlet at one end and an outlet at the other end;an annular gaseous fluid passage surrounding said central passage havingmeans to admit a gaseous fluid thereto at the end thereof adjacent theinlet of said central passage; a relatively short longitudinallyextended mix-ing and expanding chamber fixed to the outlet end of saidcentral passage and forming a closure for said surrounding pass-age,said chamber being provided with a plurality of annularly arrangeddiagonal gaseous fluid ducts from said surrounding passage into saidmixing chamber, said diagonal ducts arranged to converge in a planeforwardly of the central portion of said mixing chamber; and arelatively long enlarged extension fixed to the outer end of said mixingchamber; another annular passage surrounding said firstmentioned annulargaseous fluid passage connected at one end with an inlet and provided atits other end with a reduced annular passage surrounding said extensionchamber, said reduced extension of said second annular passage beingprovided with a plurality of outlet ducts surrounding said expansionchamber, said ducts arranged substantially parallel to the axis of saidcentral fuel passage, said extension forming an expansion section forextremely finely atomizing and turbulizing the mixture; a restrictedWall at the outer end of said expansion chamber forming a compressionchamber at the emerging end of said extension, said compression chamberhaving an outlet for the combustible mixture, the ducts of said secondannular passage arranged to discharge a gaseous fluid annularly aroundthe discharge of said combustible mixture.

7. In a fuel and gaseous fluid vaporizer uni-t for a furnace, a centralpassage having a fuel inlet at one end and an outlet at the other end;an annular gaseous fluid passage surrounding said central passage havingmeans to admit a gaseous fluid thereto at the end thereof adjacent theinlet of said central passage; a relatively short longitudinallyextended mixing chamber fixed to the outlet end of said central passageand forming a closure for said surrounding passage, said chamber beingprovided with a plurality of annularly arranged diagonal gaseous fluidducts from said surrounding passage into said mixing chamber, saiddiagonal ducts arranged to converge in a plane forwardly of the centralportion of said mixing chamber; and a relatively long enlarged extensionfixed to the outer end of said mixing chamber, said extension forming anexpansion section, the volume of said expansion chamber being severaltimes greater than the volume of said mix-ing chamber to cause rapidexpansion of any fuel particles into the gaseous fluid and for extremelyfinely atomizing and turbulizing the mixture; a restricted wall at theouter end of said expansion chamber forming a compression chamber at theemerging end of said extension, said compression chamber being ofsubstantially less volume than the volume of said expansion chamber tounify and condense said turbulized mixture, said compression chamberhaving an outlet for the combustible mixture.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,451,063 Anthony Apr. 10, 1923 1,522,951 Gilmore Jan. 13, 19251,647,956 Butcher Nov. 1, 1927 1,999,121 Wilson Apr. 23, 1935 2,239,025Vigneault Apr. 22, 1941 2,303,104 Abbey Nov. 24, 1942 2,368,373 MorellJan. 30, 1945 2,672,727 Brown Mar. 23. 1954

